In 1956, on the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was that of destalinization and marked, according to the reading that the Chinese do, the beginning of the end of the ‘Urss.
At a time when the Chinese Communist Party (CCC) is open on Sunday October 16 in Beijing, Xi Jinping can be reassured. Ten years after having taken, in November 2012, the reins of an unusual party which feared to undergo the same fate as his Soviet big brother, the secretary general of the CCP can boast of having carried out his first mission. He returned to order in the party, while managing to make China twice richer in 2021 than it was in 2010.
With this assessment, Xi Jinping should take advantage of this congress to further strengthen its power by surrounding itself almost exclusively of faithful. Besides, as his “thought” will very likely enter the constitution of the CCP, his possible criticisms will no longer be only political rivals but real traitors.
All this does not bode well. Already, in the past ten years, under the Xi Jinping, the party’s head, has gone from a collegial leadership to an all-powerful leader and a power limited to a lifetime presidency. Without being nationalized, the private sector at the base of economic dynamism is now subjected more or less to the same rules as the public sector.
After three years of COVID-19, the opening of China to the world gives way to a country closed on itself for reasons which seem as ideological as it is health. Finally, the cooperation that prevailed until then with the United States – to the point that some were worried about the emergence of a G2 – has turned into a cold cold war, China Optant, de facto, for a anti-Western alliance with Russia.
All this without real debate in China, including in a communist party whose leaders, panicked at the idea of paying the price for the anti -corruption campaign of Xi Jinping, swallowed all the snakes without saying. Including, in 2018, the end of the limit of the two five -year terms imposed on the President of the Republic. Xi Jinping is sometimes described as “president of everything”. In fact, this micromanating follower seems to have an opinion on all subjects, except one: the organization of his succession. Does this 69-year-old man intend to stay in power for another five years, ten, fifteen? No one knows.
If this uncertainty allows Xi Jinping to neutralize its challengers, it is deeply unhealthy. China is due to face major – demographic, economic, ecological challenges in particular – that a handful of seventy or even septuagenarian males is undoubtedly not able to note. Above all, the anti-Western orientation of Chinese foreign policy would also deserve to be debated. In private, some Chinese officials do not hide their fear in the face of the rise of ambient nationalism, also imposed by the president.
If they believe that the election of Donald Trump in the White House validates the Chinese Elite selection model, the rivalry with Washington and the concentration of powers in the hands of a single man in Beijing worry many Chinese. Ten years after its accession to power, the omnipotence of Xi Jinping has become a risk for China but also for the rest of the world.